The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1887-10-27
THE NA-BENIBE.
An Interesting Tribe of Africans-They
Prefer Death to Slavery.

An Interesting Tribe of Africans-rhey
Prefer Death to Slavery.
Every now and then some mission
ary or explorer in Africa reports the
discovery of some interesting tribe
that has never been heard of before
Though Africa has been overrun in all
directions, there are extensive regions
between the tracks of travellers that
are still unknown, and remarkable in
formation often rewards the first
VIII ite man who visits them. Father
Josset, Catholic missionary, who
lives west of Lake Tanganyika, has
just sent home an account of an in
teresting people of whom Livingstone.
Cameron, Stanley, Thompson, and
other travellers never heard, though
they all, doubtless, saw the mountains
on which this tribe have made their
homes.
The Wa-Bembe, Father Josef SAYS,
inhabit chain of mountains some dis
tance west of the great Lake Tangan-
ylka. The country around them has
for years been overrun by Arab slave
and ivory dealers, but the Wa-Bembe
have never met them. 1t has been
their deliberate purpose to avoid all
contact with the Mohammedan ele-
ment, and this difficult policy has been
successfully carried out.
Dividing their tribe into clans, the
nountaineers have built their villages
upon the loftiest and most precipitous
parts of the chain of mountains they
inhabit. They sternly forbid all
strangers from climbing their sum-
mits. When they have become well
acquainted with individuals of other
tribes they permit their visits, but
they allow no party of men to ascend
their mountains, and they will have
nothing to do with natives whom they
suspect of holding relations with the
Arabs or with the Waugwanas, a tribe
that has been converted to Islamism.
They devote themselves to the culture
of the soil, and their mountains are
the granary of the northwest cos.- .
the lake. ~ VI
Sometimes they de-,oood ;u.o A.
plain plain to s exchange the products @ of theit s
n.ado .o' .ne iron lances and axes
r' lnaoe oy the natives of Uvira.
tnese visits are very brief Then
they visit the mission stations to 90,
oioth IN exchange for the provisions
they bring. They always reach the
stations at nightfall. and as soon as
their business is transacted they at
once retrace their steps to their noun
tain homes. They have grown to have
confidence in the missionaries, and
their chiefs have at last consented to
receive white men on their mountains
who go there to buy food.
1t must Lot he thought that the Wa
bemos AXE pleasure in thus isolating
themselves from the world around
them. They keep all men at arm s
length because they know the misery
that the Arab slave-dealers have in
ficted upon scores of hapless villages.
They are determined to die rather
than be enslaved, and in their noun
tain fastness they are able, through
their bravery and superior position, to
keep themselves free and independent.
They bitterly hate all Mohammedans,
and want all persons of that faith to
let them severely alone. Their self
imposed restraints are CALLING never
theless, and they would like to be
able to move more freely around the
country.
A little while ago one of the chiefs
visited Father Josset's mission station.
1--WE would like" said he, ito be the
children of the whites. The situation
in which we live is very unpleasant.
We are obliged to till our fields with
the hoe in one hand and the spear in
the other If the whites would only
induce the Arabs and their native
friends to let US alone the present
situation would cease. We would then
work in our fields without fear, and
we would gladly supply our white
friends and their children with food.
We would bring you, not as to-day,
little bundles of food that children can
carry, but big loads under whose
weight even men would fall"
The missionaries told the chief that
they looked upon the Wa-Bembe as
their children, and that they would at
the first opportunity intercede with the
Arabs in their behalf 1t is to be
feared that they will not be able to
make much impression upon the cruel
slave-drivers, who kill without mercy
all the natives who oppose their
crimes
Father Josef says the Wa-Bembe
are a numerous people, and the
mountains where they dwell fairly
swarm with human beings. A native
whom the missionaries sent to the
mountain homes of this people re-
turned with the statement that men
were as thick on the mountain slopes
as blades of grass on the plain, and
that some of their villages along the
ridges were three miles in length.
Here is a tribe that at one of the
very head fountains of the Arab slave
trade have maintained the spirit of
freedom. They have kept arms in
their hands, determined to resist to the
bitter end all attempts to reduce them
to bondage. Their courage and the
natural stronghold which they defend
have made them formidable, and in
the pure air of their mountain homes
they are multiplying and strengthen
ing, while the tribes around them,
blighted by the Arab invasion, are
wasting away.-Nea0 York Sun.
Catching an Owl.